Costa Foundation day raises £150,000

17 June, 2008

Costa Coffee’s first national Foundation Day raised £150,000, which will be donated to coffee growing communities.

Profits generated in its 700 stores on 14 June are being donated to The Costa Foundation today, and will go towards building five new schools in Costa Rica, Guatemala and Uganda.The charity was set up by Costa in 2006 to help with the building of schools, to improve education and the lives of coffee growing communities across the globe.“We wanted to give something back to the communities where we source our coffee and local farmers have specifically told us that the best way Costa can help is by focusing on education through building schools for their children,” said David Hutchinson, Costa Coffee marketing director and Costa Foundation trustee.
“Our first Foundation Day was a huge success with customers across the country supporting us simply by buying their regular coffee at our stores. We are hoping to continue to run Costa Foundation Day on an annual basis to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to coffee growing farmers.”Since the Foundation began it has improved sanitation, developed land to enable families to grow crops, and has built accommodation for teachers and four schools in Columbia, Uganda and Ethiopia.